Farm Mom Diaries: No Such Thing As A Pain Free Labor

  I'm going to come right out and bluntly state that for the most part, Hypnobirthing is hogwash. Water birthing is close to that. Prenatal yoga? Same group. Eating pineapple to take away pain? Oh that goes on the top shelf with hypnobirthing.

  Yes, my friend, I really did try all that. They all had some good points, to be sure, but there was one glaring lie that they all held: That a pain free labor can be achieved. Fellow mothers, you can laugh with me at such an idea.

 I am a wimp when it comes to pain. A total, complete wimp. I practically buy ibuprofen in bulk, and take it almost daily (yeah, I know it destroys your liver and that I'll regret it when I'm old). And while I wasn't stupid enough to believe in such a thing as a "pain free birth", I was sure as heck gonna' try everything I could to at least decrease the pain. I had nine months to research and prepare, and that's exactly what I did. Reading through the books and websites for Hypnobirthing, water birthing, prenatal yoga, and herbal remedies, I noticed the very common thread of each practice claiming that "if you followed their method perfectly, then you too could have a gorgeous, pain free, relaxing birth that you would treasure in your memories forever!" Please read that sentence in a corny, sales-pitchy voice. 

 Well shucks, I don't know about a pain free birth, but I'll sure try it out and at least hope for a more comfortable one! So for nine months I prepped... I did the prenatal yoga every single day, I took a 1.5 mile walk whenever the weather permitted, I drank that nasty raspberry leaf tea twice a day (confession: it's actually not nasty; but after you've had it twice a day, every day, for months upon months, you get really tired of it!), I told the midwife to plan for a water birth, and by golly I memorized that entire hypnobirthing book AND listened to all those CD's that came with it. I know, I know... I sound like such a typical "first time mom" doing all that. But hey, remember the whole pain intolerance thing? 

  December 10th rolled around, and my water broke at 7am that morning. I dilated from 2cm to 10cm in a span of three hours. And you know what I very quickly learned? Contractions hurt LIKE THE DICKENS! Like a good girl, I did everything that I had learned over the months. I ate the pineapple to help calm the pain, I relaxed as much as possible, I did the slow, deep breathing, I got in the nice warm tub... I did it all, but I sure didn't feel like I was even getting mild relief despite all my efforts!

  The irony of it all peaked when I was five hours into heavy labor, and my midwives (by now I had amassed four of them) began telling me to push. Push!?!? I just spent almost nine months reading material that told me that under no circumstances should a woman push if she wants a gentle, pain free labor! And here I was, being told by everyone in the room to push as hard as I could! It was in that crazy, foggy-brained moment that I declared all my learning to be a load of crap. And I began pushing for all I was worth.

 After twelve hours, little Travis was FINALLY born, and I decided that I wouldn't waste my time with that hypnobirthing book again. There is no such thing folks, as a pain free labor. Some people may be blessed to have less painful birth if they're built right and they have a small baby, but I don't think anyone can claim to have had a comfortable time. 

  Now, I will admit that each one of those methods did help a little in some way or another, and the accumulated efforts of it all was probably what saved me from having to have an emergency C-section. The raspberry tea helped strengthen those necessary muscles, and helped me heal completely by 3 weeks postpartum. The hypnobirthing helped me handle the early, less-intense contractions, the prenatal yoga allowed me to regain my original weight and waistline by two weeks postpartum, and the water birth... Actually, the water birthing didn't do a thing for me and turned out to be more detrimental to my situation. Oh, and the pineapple sure didn't help the pain in any form or fashion!

 Moral of the story: save yourself some time and trouble; instead of memorizing the hypnobirthing book, go take a nap. You'll gain more from the nap. 

Farm Mom Diaries: Adaptation

  Little Travis is now three weeks old. I'm still trying to figure out how we've gotten this far already, while simultaneously despairing at the long road ahead. I have to agree with everyone who meets him that he really is an easy going, sweet, smiley baby. He eats every 2 - 3 hours, *usually* only wakes up once in the night, and is generally content to sleep throughout the day. Now, this isn't every day routine by any means, but more often than not it is.

  And yet, despite how easy and sweet he is, I still find myself struggling to settle into all of this. I was never a very "motherly" person; growing up, I eyed other people's babies from across the room, but never desired to get very close. Babies always made me uncomfortable in the way they would randomly cry without ceasing, and seemed to have such staunch nocturnal habits. I've always been more comfortable with calves and goat kids; they're easy to care for and to understand. 

  Nevertheless, I'm giving this whole "mothering thing" the best shot I've got. I love this little fellow, but it's still a huge learning curve to handle. For the first week and a half I was constantly in frustrated tears because he would hardly sleep and would always cry as if in pain. Eventually I found out that he takes after his mother and is sensitive to cow milk, which was giving him bad stomach pain. Sigh... I tried going completely off of all forms of dairy, but it was pointless in the end, as my milk supply dried up. So yes, you guessed it; my son is now on Similac soy-based formula. Hoorah. But at least now he's back to being his happy little self, most of the time... I promise folks, he's still an average baby, and I have spent many a night on the couch, trying to get him to go to sleep. 

  As we've come to each new problem, we've managed to solve it in one way or another. Except for one thing: Sleeping at night. Yes, I did say that he usually only wakes up once at night, but it's certainly not always, and it's still a wonky schedule. He stays awake until 1am to 2am, sleeps till 3 or 4am which is feeding time, and then takes a cat nap until 6am. So we're averaging 4 - 5 hours of sleep each night. And for the record, I require 8 - 10 hours of sleep to be any good to anyone. See the problem here? The Caity needs at least 8 hours, and is only getting 5. Big. Problem.

By the time we hit the 2.5 week mark, I was a wreck. Tired, depressed, grumpy, and not feeling very motherly at all. Thank heavens for an amazing midwife though; she concocted a beautiful plan, and now once or twice a week Travis spends the night with his grandma and grandpa (who are pretty sure that he hung the moon), so hubby and I can have a whole night to ourselves. We tried this for the first time on New Year's Eve, and wow... A full night's sleep makes such a huge difference!! So this has at least solved part of the problem. Now we just have to work on fixing his sleeping schedule...

  I'm sure as we go along things will get easier, and I'll adapt to this new role in life. It's just the here and now that's difficult. Everything's new and challenging, and I'm always TIRED! 

 So there you have it. We're still alive; resembling zombies perhaps, but alive. If Travis and I can just figure out a good nighttime pattern, then I do believe we'll be good to go. 

 For now though, I make sure that I have stout tea and coffee at hand at all times. 

Travis Owen

  If you haven't figured it out by now, yes, that's his name. Although I admit to calling him "Small Mailman" more often than "Travis"... (nickname gets a nod towards Pixar's movie 'UP' in reference)

 My apologies for the silence! Our internet server had problems that took a week for the company to fix! Oy vey. I *think* it's good to go now, but only time will tell...

Launch Postponed -- Due To Baby!

Early bird registration for the 'You Can Succeed' e-course has been postponed for just a couple days, due to lack of internet here, and a newborn baby!!

 Yep, the little man himself *finally* decided to make an appearance! I will post pictures shortly; once I have enough time and internet to do so... His arrival was December 10th, at 8:30pm. T'was a long... Long... LONG labor. Ugh. Fourteen hours all total, and he came out at 9 lbs. even, and measuring 21" long. All I could think of during the labor was that 1) He was NEVER going to come; 2) That I was surely going to perish from the pain; and 3) If I survived, then I wanted a really greasy cheeseburger ASAP. Yes, I was having cravings even while in labor. Don't judge. 

48 hours later, I'm slowly starting to figure this whole "mama-thing" out. It's taking time, and I'm pretty exhausted from it all, but he's a cute (and pudgy!) little fellow. Hubby and I think we'll keep him... ;) 

Farm Girl to Farm Mom

  So... I left out a part of the story the other day when I gave y'all the latest scoop. A bit more has happened. I just needed some time to think about telling that part.

  To say it bluntly, my friends: I'm pregnant.

 Yeah. For real. Like, there's a tiny, little human inside me. *insert slightly creeped-out look*

 This makes the first time to publicly announce it. I figured it was finally time, since I'm just hitting my second trimester and I'm starting to show. LOL. And yes, I really am excited! Although, I think the dear husband just might be more excited than me. We're both pretty tickled though. 

 And this is why the veal operation is waiting until next spring. 'Cause I'm about to get all fat and roundy, and then I'm going to have a little newborn to bring along everywhere before Christmas hits. A new farm business and new baby all in one fell swoop is even a bit much for this girl. But hey, next spring I WILL be setting up electric fence, and buying calves; it'll just be with a wee babe strapped to my back with a Moby wrap. ;) 

 I will admit that it's taken me quite awhile to become excited about this baby... My husband and I found out that we were pregnant way back in February, and I was over the moon with happiness. I felt great, still had energy, and we planned on popping the news during an upcoming family gathering. Three days before that gathering happened though... I miscarried. I was 5 1/2 weeks along. That crushed me. I had wanted that little baby so bad, and then I lost it. God was good though; and less than a month later, we were pregnant again (ahem). 

  I should have been excited when I found out about this new, sweet babe. But I wasn't. Still depressed over the loss of the first, scared to death that I would lose this one too, and constantly sick to my stomach, there was very little joy for many, many weeks. Through the faithful help of my sweet husband though, I began to rise; both physically and mentally. And I'm pleased to report that I'm now on day #5 of NO morning sickness! Folks, I haven't felt normal since mid-February, and have been on semi-bedrest since the beginning of March! Yesterday was a celebration of not just Memorial Day for us; but also that little ol' Caity ('le Me) is finally able to act like a normal human again. So we went swimming at the local pool (which we live two blocks away from right now), and had a hilarious round of road bowling with the family in the evening. Normal things perhaps; but for a girl who's been struggling to simply walk up and down stairs for two months, it was big.

 I'm still pretty nervous about becoming a mom in the very near future, but I guess I'll just roll with it and take it one day at a time. That seems to be what most moms do... ;)

 The Farm Girl is graduating to Farm Mom... Now there's a plot twist I wasn't expecting. LOL.